Twitter begins talks to explore possible sale

Even co-founder’s reutrn has failed to boost revenue.

Twitter Inc has initiated talks with several tec companies to explore selling itself, a person familiar with the matter said on Friday, as the social media company grapples with its slowest revenue growth since going public in 2013.

Twitter has struggled to translate its high public profile into the kind of user growth that has propelled Facebook, wh-ich now boasts 1.71 billion customers. The company has also suffered from management turmoil since its earliest days.

CNBC reported earlier on Friday, citing anonymous sources, that Twit-ter is in talks with companies that include Alp-habet’s Google and Sale-sforce.com, and may receive a formal bid soon. Twitter and Alph-abet could not be reac-hed immediately for co-mmen while Salesforce declined to comment.

Twitter shares jumped more than 20 per cent to $22.46 per share on Friday on the report of sales talks, marking the largest one-day rise since their first day of trading in 2013.

Twitter, which now has a market value of nearly $16 billion, has been a near-constant focus of takeover speculation amid persistently disappointing sales and user engagement.

Morningstar analyst Ali Mogharabi said Alphabet would be the best acquirer for Twitter since it has not yet been able to crack social media on its own despite several efforts. “From a strategic standpoint, we think from it would be more beneficial for Alp-habet as opposed to Salesforce,” Mr Mogharabi said.

Morningstar estimates Twitter could be bought for $22 per share.

As rivals such as Facebook’s Instagram and Snapchat gain traction with advertisers and social media users, investors have questioned how long Twitter could persist as a stand-alone company.

Co-founder Jack Dorsey returned to the company as chief executive in 2015, but his plan for reviving Twitter is at best seen as unfinished.

The company has struggled to generate revenue growth and profits, despite having some 313 million average monthly acti-ve users and a growing presence as a source of breaking news. It grew its user base by less than 1 per cent in the second quarter.

Twitter missed Wall Street’s sales expectations in both the first and second quarters of this year, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine, and has yet to produce a net profit in 11 quarters.